![]() ![]() Unfortunately it turns out that Scherino had nothing to do with it, and there may be new bosses in town. At Mickey’s funeral, symbolically carried out in the Naples harbour, Luca vows revenge for his brother, and goes after Scherino, a mob boss he suspects of ordering the hit. On their way back from the stables they encounter a police roadblock which turns out to be fake, and the ‘cops’ open fire, killing Mickey. ![]() The same night, someone sets fire to Mickey’s stables, killing his prize racehorse. Suspecting an informant, Luca and his brother Mickey take their concerns to their Mafia-connected boss. The plot starts in the harbour of Naples, where smuggler Luca (Fabio Testi, a mainstay of the Italian crime flick) evades a police raid by blowing up a boat and faking his own death. Thankfully those indefatigable miscreants at Shameless have now issued this on DVD in a totally uncut print, so fans of the Maestro’s horror hits can appraise it for themselves. Contraband, on the surface a straightforward Mafia revenge flick, contains more of the brutal red stuff than most of today’s horror upstarts could dream of splashing across the screen. Even when working outside the horror genre, however, Fulci knew what made his films successful – buckets of gore. Even after the worldwide success of Zombie Flesh Eaters in 1979, Fulci made the occasional foray outside of the genre which made his name – notably the post apocalyptic sci-fi The New Gladiators (1983 – ripped off by Stephen King for The Running Man) and Conquest (also 1983), an attempt to jump on the Conan The Barbarian bandwagon. In fact, Fulci worked in a variety of genres from the 1950s onwards, from spy films to comedies, before eventually entering the horror/giallo field with One On Top Of The Other (1969) and A Lizard In Woman’s Skin (1971). Mario Bava made westerns, sci-fi and peplums (historical muscle man films) even after astounding the world with his official debut Black Sunday, and Lucio Fulci was no different, as Contraband proves. Dario Argento, arguably the most dedicated of the horror directors, also made westerns early in his career. Shout-Out: The scene where Mickey is tricked into getting out of his car by assassins dressed as police officers and then mowed down with a machine gun is an homage to Sonny Corleone's death scene in The Godfather.The masters of the classic Italian horror film were never confined to just one genre.Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Or in this case, Fabio Testi.Creator Cameo: Lucio Fulci briefly appears in one scene as a mobster.Boom, Headshot!: One guy gets shot in the mouth point blank. ![]() This film contains examples of the following tropes: Not to be confused with the 2012 film of the same name starring Mark Wahlberg. The film is set in Naples, where Luca Di Angelo (Testi) and his brother Michele (Enrico Maisto) use speedboats to smuggle cigarettes, and find themselves between two contraband bosses after they lose a load of cigarettes. ![]() Fulci's sole poliziotesco picture, the film was funded by actual mobsters after the original producer died suddenly and his widow nearly pulled the plug. Contraband, originally titled Luca il contrabbandiere ("Luca the Smuggler"), is a 1980 Italian poliziottesco directed by Lucio Fulci and starring Fabio Testi, Marcel Bozzuffi, and Ivana Monti. ![]()
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